The Transport Management Centre initially believed that the worst of the holiday traffic had passed and conditions would ease on the state’s roads throughout Friday.

But by 1.30pm in Kempsey, where the temperature was forecast to hit 33 degrees on Friday, the traffic queues had blown out to longer than Thursday's. Motorists were warned to add an additional one hour and 45 minutes to their travel times.

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The queue in Kempsey had reduced to 19 kilometres by 3.30pm, adding an extra hour and 15 minutes to travel time.

In Bulahdelah, a seven-kilometre line had eased back to normal by 5pm, while in Macksville the four-kilometre queue had dropped to two kilometres.

Heavy eastbound traffic had cleared on the New England Highway approaching Hexham Bridge.

Queues at Milton, which had been four kilometres, had cleared by 5pm, but two-kilometre jams remained at Kiama, Batemans Bay and Albion Park Rail.

Around Kempsey, a bypass under construction will eventually resolve a lot of the congestion and allow motorists to avoid driving through the town on a road that narrows from two lanes in one direction to one.

That bypass should be finished in months, meaning this is potentially the last Christmas period in which traffic is concentrated in the area. The bypass was first proposed in 2001.

Planning started on the Bulahdelah Bypass in 2000. That road, which should also alleviate the bottleneck in the area, is due to open in March.

Traffic was briefly disrupted near Wollongong on Thursday afternoon when several monkeys escaped onto the Princes Highway.

The monkeys, which perform for Stardust Circus, were in a trailer being towed by a Nissan Patrol when it crashed into a concrete barrier about 2.45pm.

A police spokesman said the monkeys escaped from their trailer and ran onto the highway at Bombo, creating confusion among holidaymakers. Handlers quickly recaptured the animals, which were not injured.

The 21-year-old female driver suffered minor injuries and was discharged from Shellharbour Hospital on Thursday night.